A Comparative Study for Open Document Formats R. Mohamed Abdel Azim*, H. Farouk Ali** Project Manager, eContent program eContent Initiative Director, eContent program Ministry of Communication & Information Technology (MCIT), Cairo, Egypt Abstract — Many technical specifications that are restrict their use of the term "standard" to technologies sometimes considered standards are proprietary rather than approved by formalized committees that are open to being open, and are only available under restrictive contract participation by all interested parties and operate on a terms (if they can be obtained at all) from the organization that consensus basis, while others do not. owns the copyright for the specification. In this paper, we present a comparative study for the most common open An open format is a published specification for storing document format, OASIS Open Document Format and digital data, usually maintained by a non-proprietary Microsoft OXML standards organization, and free of legal restrictions on use. For example, an open format must be implementable Index Terms — Open Standards, XML, Open XML, by both proprietary and free/open source software, Open Format, OASIS, Open Office using the typical licenses used by each. In contrast to open formats, proprietary formats are controlled and I. INTRODUCTION defined by private interests. Open formats are a subset of open standards. Open Standards are publicly available and The primary goal of open formats is to guarantee long- implementable standards. By allowing anyone to obtain term access to data without current or future uncertainty and implement the standard, they can increase with regard to legal rights or technical specification. A compatibility between various hardware and software common secondary goal of open formats is to enable components, since anyone with the necessary technical competition, instead of allowing a vendor's control over know-how and resources can build products that work a proprietary format to inhibit use of competing together with those of the other vendors that base their products. Governments have increasingly shown an designs on the standard (although patent holders may interest in open format issues. impose "reasonable and non-discriminatory" royalty fees In the context of business information exchanges, and other licensing terms on implementers of the standardization refers to the process of developing data standard). exchange standards for specific business processes Many technical specifications that are sometimes using specific syntaxes. These standards are usually considered standards are proprietary rather than being developed in voluntary consensus standards bodies open, and are only available under restrictive contract such as the United Nations Center for Trade Facilitation terms (if they can be obtained at all) from the and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT)and the organization that owns the copyright for the Organization for the Advancement of Structured specification. Information Standards (OASIS). Being an open standard also does not necessarily imply that no licenses to patent rights are needed to use II. What is OpenDocument? the standard or that such licenses are available for free. For example, the standards published by the major Have you ever had trouble opening a document that internationally recognized standards bodies such as the someone sent you? Have you ever bought a copy of MS ITU, ISO, and IEC are ordinarily considered open, but Office that you didn't want because you have to read may require patent licensing fees for implementation. documents that only work with MS Office? Have you Open standards which can be implemented by anyone, ever wondered why there is so little choice in office without royalties or other restrictions, are sometimes software? referred to as open formats. What you are seeing is vendor lock-in. It happens There is little really universal agreement about the because your documents are written in a secret format usage of either of the terms "open" or "standard". Some that only one software maker knows. This prevents people restrict their use of the term "open" to royalty- competitors from making products that can read and free technologies, while others do not; and some people write those files well. In short, it reduces your choices made up from representatives of the ICT industry and its down to one. customers. Microsoft Office Open XML is defined by Vendor lock-in is the enemy of competition. It short- Microsoft and currently undergoing a standardization circuits the market forces that would normally give you process by Ecma International, an ICT industry better products at a lower cost. OpenDocument is a way standardizations organization. This Ecma standard will out of vendor lock-in for office software. then be put through the process to gain ISO status. In What if you could send a file to anyone and know that the event of successful ISO adoption, control of the they can read it? standard will then rest with Ecma International. What if you could buy any product you want and The OpenDocument format is implemented in several know that you can still communicate with your applications; at the time of writing Microsoft Office Open customers? XML is being tested with beta versions of Microsoft This is the promise of the OpenDocument format. So, Office 2007 and is a standard still in flux. what is OpenDocument? OpenDocument is... The OpenDocument format is the native format of both An open format. Any software maker can learn its OpenOffice.org 2.0 and KDE KOffice, and is targeted as a details and make an application that can read and write native format for multiple applications. Microsoft Office this format. Open XML will be used as the native format for An ISO standard. It is not controlled by one company, Microsoft Office 2007. As well as Office 2007 providing but by a non-profit standards group without a vested native support for the format, a compatible plug-in will be interest. released for some earlier editions of the suite. Those OpenDocument covers the features required by text, versions of Office will also receive a plug-in for spreadsheets, charts, graphical documents and more. OpenDocument support. It is not clear at this stage what level of interoperability either plug-ins will provide.[1] III. PROS OF GOING "OPEN STANDARD" First of all, organizations that store their data in an V. OPENDOCUMENT OR ODF open format can avoid in this way being locked in to a About OASIS, OASIS (Organization for the single software vendor. Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a Second, you the user have finally the opportunity to not-for-profit, international consortium that drives the end the long frustrating years in which Word or development, convergence, and adoption of e-business PowerPoint documents created on one PC would not be standards. Members themselves set the OASIS technical opened correctly by another PC with a different version agenda, using a lightweight, open process expressly of the program. designed to promote industry consensus and unite disparate efforts. The consortium produces open IV. TYPES OF OPEN DOCUMENT FORMAT standards for Web services, security, e-business, and standardization efforts in the public sector and for There are two competing XML-based formats for application-specific markets. Founded in 1993, OASIS documents intended for use in office productivity has more than 4,000 participants representing over 600 software. These are OpenDocument and Microsoft organizations and individual members in 100 countries. Office Open XML. Both formats combine XML content Approved OASIS Standards include AVDL, CAP, with other media files into compressed archives (JAR in DocBook, DSML, ebXML CPPA, ebXML Messaging, the case of OpenDocument, ZIP in the case of Office ebXML Registry, OpenDocument, SAML, SPML, UBL, Open XML). In both formats, the main office document UDDI, WSDM, WS-Reliability, WSRP, WS-Security, content and presentation information is stored as XML, XACML, and XCBF. http://www.oasis -open.org/. with the ability to reference binary content such as BMP, GIF, JPEG. Both support the Dublin Core metadata OpenDocument or ODF, short for the OASIS Open standard. Document Format for Office Applications, is an open There is fierce debate about technical merit between format for saving and exchanging office documents such supporters of each format. A significant issue in terms of as memos, reports, books, spreadsheets, databases, the success of the formats is the politics of adoption. charts, and presentations. This standard was developed The technical arguments, as in other battles for by the OASIS industry consortium and based upon the standards, often turn out to be less important than XML format originally created by OpenOffice.org. ODF customer perception. Fundamental differences between was approved as an OASIS standard on May 1, 2005, the two formats are that OpenDocument is an approved and was approved for release as an ISO and IEC ISO standard (approved for release as an ISO and IEC International Standard (ISO/IEC 26300) on May 8, 2006. International Standard in May 2006, designated, ISO/IEC 26300) and is controlled by OASIS, a foundation broadly IBM, Sun Microsystems, and Others Develop Royalty- OpenDocument 1.0 (second edition) has the status of Free Standard for Office Applications Document Format a Committee Specification in OASIS. It includes all the and is publicly accessible. This means it can be editorial changes made to address JTC1 ballot comments